HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Domestic retailers will continue to lead the market in the comingyears, experts have said.

Speaking at a meeting held by the High Quality Vietnamese Goods BusinessAssociation and the Business Studies and Assistance Centre, Pham Hong Son,former sales manager of Unilever Vietnam, said besides understanding localconsumers better and easily finding suitable places for stores compared totheir foreign rivals, local retailers also had an advantage in day-to-dayworking since retail usually involved a lot of employees and Vietnamesemanagers have the edge.

Amid concerns that foreign retailers with their deep pockets will dominate themarket, he said many local retailers also had a lot of money and had developedvarious distribution channels, including supermarkets, minimarts and onlineshopping.

The rapid growth of the digital economy in the past few years had acceleratedthe evolution of the retail industry and changed consumers’ shoppingbehaviours, he said.

Shoppers tended to buy from many channels -- online, offline and a combination-- and were not loyal to any of them, causing pressure on retailers trying toretain them, he said.

People tend to shop fewer times – decreasing from two or three times a week toonce a week -- but buy more at a time.

Convenience was a major factor now for shoppers, he said.

Consumers based their buying decisions on many factors beyond price, and theneed for customer experience to meet or exceed customer expectations was moreimportant than ever, he said.

Retailers must understand consumers’ shopping behaviours, he said.

Developing multiple channels was a key for success in the Vietnamese retailmarket, but this would be a big challenge for retailers in terms of competence,he said.

The retail market would grow steadily along with the economy in the comingyears, he predicted.

According to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, at the end oflast year, local retailers had an 83 percent market share.-VNS/VNA